Welcome to a special edition of our newsletter - Apart News!

Over the past 3+ years, the Apart community has built a global AI safety research infrastructure, producing 22 peer-reviewed papers, and engaging 3,500+ in our community across 50+ locations worldwide. However, Apart Research is at a pivotal moment: our current funding expires soon, and without immediate support, our momentum may stop.

The Fundraiser So Far

2.5 weeks ago, we launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of keeping Apart alive. After many heartwarming messages and donations, we have achieved our first milestone! However, this will not be enough to support all our key programs:

Where we are 2.5 weeks in!

The Apart community has already stepped up in more ways than one. We have seen overwhelming support with personal stories shared across our fundraiser along with more than 45 private donations

It has been amazing to see the supporting and loving community we have together!

You can read all testimonials and add your own on our Donate page or Manifund.

What We’d Miss

Reaching the first milestone means that Apart will continue to exist as an organization. Reaching our next milestones means that our programs will continue as well.

With $239k in the fundraiser we can continue until future grant-making rounds open up; with $477k we can be confident in our short-term sustainability; and with a full year's budget, we can focus our full efforts on direct work and growing our impact, which is crucial for our long-term existence.

And you may ask, what exactly might we miss?

1. Making AI safety research accessible for anyone

Apart Research has built a research accelerator that enables you and many other technical professionals from around the world to establish themselves in research and get a career in AI safety (33+ placements already confirmed!).

But don’t take our word for it, take theirs:

“All of my work in AI safety traces back to my involvement with Apart.”
– Zainab Majid, now Co-Founder at Stealth AI security startup, currently valued at $20M (see some of her work from the Apart Lab Fellowship on cybersecurity evaluations)

“Today, because of Apart Research's initial spark, I'm thriving in a full-time AI safety research role […]”
– Chandler Smith, Research Engineer at the Cooperative AI Foundation (read one of his recent works on improving benchmarking practices)

“I think Apart Research's hackathons are a great place for community and skill building. I want your work to continue.”
– Jim Chapman, $400 donation message, COO at Cadenza Labs (check out his thoughts on a late stage career shift)

This accelerator is the culmination of years of work, includes 100+ pages of internal researcher wikis and a fully meritocratic reviewer pipeline:

A journey through Apart Sprints → Apart Studio → Apart Lab gives anyone a substantial chance to create a high-impact career for themselves.

See examples of what such a journey can look like on Page 6 of our Impact Report.

2. Conducting and sharing important research like DarkBench

We published “DarkBench: Benchmarking Dark Patterns in Large Language Models” at ICLR 2025, the conclusion of 2 related hackathon projects and the teams collaborating across three continents.

Not only did this paper receive an Oral Spotlight award (top 1.8% of accepted papers), it was also featured in several news outlets, such as VentureBeat, and presented in Paris (in-person) and Brussels (online) to inform EU AI Act legislation.

A screenshot from our Impact Report V1.1 research highlight

In the research, we define the term "LLM Dark Patterns," manipulative behaviors implemented in LLMs that are designed to manipulate users without their knowledge or consent - something that emerges naturally from the incentives of AI development.

And this is just one of 22 publications!

Another paper received an ICLR 2025 oral award and 4 other papers were presented at the conference, without even mentioning our 10-15 researcher presence at NeurIPS, ICML, and other top-tier academic venues.

Impact Report Highlights

To help you understand what Apart has accomplished, we've just published our Impact Report where we share what you, the community, has accomplished in the last few years.

• Research Results: 22 peer-reviewed publications in venues like ICLR, NeurIPS, and ACL

• Global Reach: 42 research sprints engaging 3,500+ participants from 26+ countries

• Talent Pipeline: 100+ researchers incubated through our Lab Fellowship

• Career Impact: 33+ instances where we helped individuals secure positions at organizations working to make AI safer, such as METR, FAR AI, and Cooperative AI Foundation

Why Is Apart At A Funding Cliff?

Since announcing our call for funding, many have expressed confusion about Apart's situation due to our reach and impact - let's address these directly:

• A foundation we expected to support our work because we outperformed last year's grant significantly was not accepted. Despite our grant receiving top marks, the foundation itself did not have the funding to support us, something we did not anticipate.

• The urgency of the campaign was influenced by delays in responses from this and other foundations during the last six months.

With that said, we are really excited to run this fundraiser since it aligns with our focus on transparency, equity, and community!

It is rare to see in research organizations in AI safety but with this fundraiser, we join other large non-profits in public campaigning (for example, you must have seen Wikipedia's donation campaigns at some point during one of your visits).

We're Still Active!

We're as excited as ever to run events and research with you:

Join us in just 6 days for the 'A Narrow Path' one-day sprint where we work with ControlAI to find weak spots before they present the plan to lawmakers across the world. This will be your chance to spend one day to have immense impact, right from your own home! Sign up here.

How Can You Help?

Spread the Word!

While it may not seem like much, it’s actually incredibly valuable to share our current situation in any way you can:

• Follow us on X and LinkedIn and like and share our posts whenever you can (for example this one!)

• Forward our newsletter to people you know who might consider funding our campaign

• Head over to our donation page or Manifund and leave a testimonial about how Apart has impacted your journey

Donate

Every contribution makes a difference:

• $200 Enables the participation of 3 hackathon participants

• $5,000 supports a Lab Fellow producing publication-quality research and publishing at a conference workshop (including conference attendance)

• $50,000 enables 3 global research Grand Challenges sprints identifying new safety approaches and accelerating sub-fields of AI safety

• $100,000 enables the publication of 4 peer-reviewed main conference AI Safety publications

​HELP US CONTINUE MAKING AI SAFER​

For those who can give comfortably, becoming a monthly supporter helps us plan with confidence:

​KEEP APART SUSTAINABLE (click "Give Monthly" when you donate)

Corporate sponsors can reach out to us directly at hi@apartresearch.comto discuss partnership opportunities.

Remember: All donations are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor Ashgro Inc, a 501(c)(3) organization.

Thank You

Over the past few years, we’ve built something extraordinary together, a global community dedicated to ensuring AI systems remain safe and aligned with human values.

In 2025, we're seeing the research and talent we've worked with making real impacts at the frontier of AI safety worldwide. With your support, we can continue this essential work at a critical time for the field.

Thank you for being part of our community and for considering support as we continue our fundraise.

If you have any questions about our funding situation or how you can help, reply directly to this email or reach out to jason@apartresearch.com.

Together for safe AI,

Jason and Esben

​2810 N Church St PMB 49028, Wilmington, DE 19802-4447